OnBeingKenn

Since we've been flooded with a lot of responses this past week and will be flooded with more tomorrow and the coming week, just a reminder to everybody who's been refreshing this thread and the results page a million times an hour,  in case you need to hear this:
You are a writer.
You will always be a writer.
Nothing these results say will change that.
You're dedicated. You're passionate. Nobody spends hundreds (or even thousands) on application fees for the heck of it. Writing is probably not your day job, but you do it anyway, don't you? You squeeze it into your free time, lose sleep, suffer your shit 9-5 just so you can get home and put words on the page. Nobody is forcing you to do this. You do this because you LOVE it. Because you'd probably stop breathing before you'd stop writing.
It is statistically more likely that you will be mugged than get into a good number of the top MFA programs in the country, based on the applicant size last year and the number of admitted students. Rejection does not mean that you are the worst. It does not mean that you are a failure. It means that there is an EXTREMELY limited number of spots in any given MFA program, and these programs have an insanely difficult task in selecting from a massive pool of talented people based on a single writing sample. It's irrational to read a rejection as "I didn't deserve it" or "I'm no good." The fact is that loads and loads of people (yes, yourself included) are good, insanely good, wildly good, and writing is an artform, not a perfectly quantifiable and measurable skill. There is no secret formula you're missing. Cohorts are assembled in a lot of ways. Ask folks who have read applications before and they will tell you -- there's a lot that goes into the decisions, and it's not exactly replicable from program to program. There's no point to wondering what you did "wrong" because "wrong" isn't the point. You're good, okay? You're super good. And this is who you are, and this is what you do. You write. No matter what those results say, you won't stop writing. You'll keep writing because you are a writer.
I completely get it. Look, it is natural for us to pin our dreams to things that are literally Our Dreams. Reading that rejection SUCKS, no getting around it. I got rejected across the board last year. I spent my rent on application fees, tanked my budget while telling myself it would all be worth it, and then felt like a shitty fraud as the rejections rolled in. I made the fatal mistake of taking every single one of those rejections personally. I would read the email, have a long and hard sob at my desk, and then decide I was terrible. I refreshed this website more times than I'd like to admit, rode a lot of gnarly anxiety waves, and when that final letter from Iowa arrived in March saying the game was up, I was donezo. With everything. It was a Big Bad Very Shit Time and I wish that at some point somebody had pulled me aside and said hey pal, look, it's not you. It ain't personal. There is no Committee of People Who Decide Who Is a Real Writer and you did not just Fail Spectacularly Before Said Committee. 
I did not stop writing. You won't stop writing either. I'm waiting on all but one of my results, and there's a darn good probability that I've got at least one rejection in my future. I mean, that's just statistics. Can't really argue with statistics. When that rejection comes, eh. It won't feel great, sure, because I really wanted it. But it is not the final decider on my work, or my worth as a writer, or my potential.
The only person who owns your future is you. Not an admissions committee (who are honestly just doing their best with a process that is really truly tough on everybody) and not an admissions result. 
You wrote before this. You will write when this is all said and done. You will keep writing. You are a writer, period.

Hey all!! 
Thought I would let everyone know that there’s a new Facebook group (some of us were also stressed out by Draft) it’s not super serious but there’s a very active group chat to accompany it! It’s a closed group called “a n g s t”. 
Theres about 15-20 of us and we’d love the company! 

Colorado State: "Apparently you don't even have to apply in order to be rejected from certain schools. What a cluster F it must be over there that they're emailing people who have simply requested information that they're 'rejected'."

https://www.facebook.com/groups/angstdraft/
this is the angst draft if anyone wants to join!!

I just sent my request! Thank you! 

Hey all!! 
Thought I would let everyone know that there’s a new Facebook group (some of us were also stressed out by Draft) it’s not super serious but there’s a very active group chat to accompany it! It’s a closed group called “a n g s t”. 
Theres about 15-20 of us and we’d love the company! 

This was my first round of applications! I only applied to four programs, as my bank couldn't afford much more. If I don't get accepted this round, I'll probably apply to those four again and add a few more. 
I submitted for JHU, Vanderbilt, Cornell & Wisconsin-Madison! They're all at the top of my list, and definitely a reach, but I figured it was worth a shot. According to previous years, acceptances for those schools at least go out first (around mid-late Feb) and most of their rejections are sent out in the mid-March time frame. 
Good luck to everyone!

Consider applying to WKU! The deadline is February 1st, so there's still a bit of time. Fully funded, two years, and a lot of opportunity to get some employable skills while you're here. Bowling Green is also a really cool town and only an hour from Nashville. 

I had a Facebook friend allude to checking GradCafe obsessively, and far be it from me to miss out on the chance to develop a new compulsion. I looked into it, realized it was basically WebMD for graduate students, and have never looked back. 

Oh my god. I was waitlisted at NAU last year and I misread the email-- I thought it just said we'd be contacted if a spot opened up and completely missed the part where it said to respond by April 15 if we wanted to remain on the waitlist. ? I'm reapplying and hoping this time I get in! There aren't really any other programs I'm interested in. 

I just recently applied to University of Arizona as well! I definitely feel you on nothing ever being "done." I can't stop myself from constantly rereading and editing - it must be a writer thing?  The advice I've been given with the SOP is that you should first and foremost answer the questions on the given prompt. Once you've answered them to the fullest extent (while still below word count) you can call it. Or another something I try to do is get another pair of eyes on it and mark it up based on their feedback and make those changes. Sometimes that gives me a sense of finality.
Thanks for posting btw! I've been prepping for this cycle since February and I can't remember how it feels to not be anxious about this stuff. It's good to know I'm not alone
 

This is round two for me, too, and I 100% feel you on the wondering why I'm putting myself through this another time. Last March ended with me in the deepest mental pit of my life, so there's a part of me that is like "girl, are you for real with this shit? again? really?" but I want this, I've got the correct dosage of antidepressants to get me through it, and weed's legal in Massachusetts so I'm way better equipped to handle this wackass process! Bring it on, y'all!
I've got my statement of purpose in another tab, and my Arizona application in yet another tab, so we're on the same page! Just remember that the sample is like 95% of the application. Just get your statement to the point that it's not a liability and you're good. It doesn't need to be a Pulitzer-winning work of unimaginable genius, and it shouldn't demand all your stress and anxiety like the sample (kind of rightly) does. I've sort of smushed together all the articles I've found online and followed their guidelines, but I'm definitely still sitting here staring my SOP down anyway. I can't take my own advice.